Yell
by daru9317
Summary: "Goodbye isn't a sad word. It's a yell that connects us to our respective dreams. Until we meet again someday, I won't forget this pride, my friend, into the sky." KaiShin.
1. Time to Burn

**Genre:** Humor, romance, crime, mystery, dark, illogical, twisted, very twisted.

**Note:** AU, no Sera, no Bourbon, no… Okay just the old main characters will be in this. Maybe those who appear before around volume 60? I don't remember quite well, but at least, Sera and Bourbon don't exist, Okiya's somewhere also (I don't know maybe he got a job and transferred to another area or country? Well he's not going to be in here anyway, just some brief mentions), Akai's dead as in… dead, and any other character that I temporarily can't remember who is a genius will be kicked out, because my brain can't keep up with too many smarties. The Gosho boys are enough to make me have nightmares full of murders and how to commit them trickily.

**Pairing:** Kaito x Shinichi (main), my OC x Hakuba (sub-main), my OC x Haibara (strong hint), Heiji x Kazuha (hint), Ran x Eisuke (hint). Yes I have two OCs and will pair one of them with Hakuba and the other one with Haibara so if you feel uncomfortable with this please click back. Blame Gosho-sensei for having so few male characters in Magic Kaito that I can't pair Aoko and Akako with anyone and I personally think Hakuba is suitable for neither of them! ; A ;

**Disclaimer:** No one belongs to me except for my OCs. The rest belong respectfully to Aoyama Gosho.

Let's start now; I've talked too much.

* * *

**Chapter 01: Time to Burn.**

Warning: Strange English and the OOCness that I have tried so hard to avoid but failed.

Rating: K.

Today's Quote: "Youth is wasted on the young." – Seishun Kouryakuhon (manga).

* * *

Little snowflakes were falling gracefully on Teitan Elementary School's vast yet vacant yard, covering it with pure whiteness. A few dry leaves clung onto the almost naked limbs until a strong wind would come across and carry them away. To the left and also the right of the iron gate, there were numerous cars in which parents were waiting for their children to come out. They checked the time with impatient looks on their faces, as it was the last day before winter vacation and sure enough, everyone wanted to hurry back home then enjoy a big, cozy family meal during a freezing winter day.

Inside of the school, more particularly, inside of class 1-B, a certain black-haired boy, wearing a pair of glasses half as big as his face, was also tapping fingers quietly in boredom on his table, counting every second for the last bell to ring. Another humdrum day was passing by, as meaningless as usual. To him, it didn't matter if it was a day left until winter break or it was already winter break or not; it wasn't till his real problem was resolved would he be at peace.

When there was approximately ten minutes left, the little girl with chestnut hair sitting next to him elbowed the boy in silence while slipping a piece of paper under his notebook. He gave her a questioning gaze before he opened the folded small card, which was tore out very marginally. It didn't take him much time to come to the conclusion that she had wanted to inform him whatever was in this note but hesitated and reconsidered it whilst preparing to do so. The borders were perfect straight lines, proof of a job carefully and precisely done, in contrast to the normal situation of students passing notes to each other: they would rip any piece of paper and quickly jot down then throw it to the receiver. He winced. This couldn't be a good thing.

_"Come to Agasa-hakase's house afterschool. We've got issues to discuss."_

He pulled out a mechanical pencil from the pencil case, clicked twice on the top of it, and scribbled his reply.

_"What now, Haibara?"_ Sliding the note back to his friend, he began tapping his index finger again.

_"This is really important, Edogawa-kun. I wasn't going to tell you but I just have to."_ Haibara remained her emotionless attitude, pretended to borrow him an eraser and skillfully hid the letter under it, dropping both of them into the pencil case.

Conan gulped at the girly, gentle handwriting yet not so gentle words on blue straight lines of the paper. If Haibara had something to talk to him, it'd most likely be related to the Black Organization, or to the antidote. And with this kind of mood, his instincts told him that whatever news she was to tell him was going to be unpleasant.

* * *

After closing the door, Conan followed Haibara into the lab full of flasks and beakers as the chemical smell stung his nostrils. The little girl pointed to a stool next to her working table which was occupied by mountains of papers with notepads scattering disorderly.

"Have a seat, Kudou-kun. I have a small experiment to do, but it'll be done soon."

Ending her command in a familiar monotone, Haibara put on her lab coat and stepped to the lab bench, turning off the hot plate. Conan followed her words as he approached the said seat, eyes kept on watching his friend. The brown-haired took out a pair of tweezers from her pocket, removing the crucible's cover that was being heated just a moment ago. She observed it for some seconds before moving her small figure to an area full of test tubes containing different substances, being capped with rubber stoppers. One of them was picked up; she dipped a micropipette in it, slightly pressed the plunger and released it for the white liquid to flow into the shaft.

_"That looks like casein… Or milk… Huh, what kind of experiment would involve milk?!"_ Conan moved his head to the side to have a peek at Haibara. She was now mixing the fluids in the crucible, slowly, steadily, waiting for a reaction to occur.

The room was a complete quiescence during the next five minutes. Conan breathed in a calm pattern, trying to make his respiration as inaudible as possible, but it was still clearly heard, let alone the panting of the other girl. Her murmur somehow got a little too loud since the glasses child swore his ears had caught something sounded similar to _"Thank goodness, even though it's the last…"_

"What's the last, Haibara? And is that milk?" Couldn't take the tense atmosphere anymore, Conan raised a question, snapping Haibara out of her own world.

"Sort of. Soymilk, actually." The scientist, satisfying at what she got, put the cover over the crucible and walked to a swivel chair near where Conan was sitting. "I ran an experiment with soymilk to test if I could make your last antidote out of it, because it has lots of protein, can help your body grow if you combine it with the right substances to maximize the use. Luckily, seems like it worked." She got on the chair, pushed it backward for some inches to get closer to the paper-covered table to grab a pill of notes, starting to flip it from page to page. "The reaction went exactly as I expected: it took quite a period of time for your blood to react to soymilk; therefore my calculations will be 97% correct and this time the antidote will last longer. That means it can endure for 7 days for the first time, 5 days for the second, then 60 – 70 hours as the third, 42 – 50 hours, 30 – 36 hours, 20 – 24 hours, 12 – 14 hours, then if possible, another 6 – 7 hours before your body develops a complete resistance against the antidote. In total, those are your last seven to eight chances to be Shinichi Kudou."

Conan's jaw dropped.

Conan felt his jaw dropping on the floor as soon as Haibara finished her statement. Wait… This… This couldn't be real, could it? It was December the 22nd, two days before Christmas, ten days before New Year, one month and twenty-three days before Valentine's Day, and a good amount of time before April Fools' Day. If Haibara was trying to make a joke then this wasn't funny at all. Though, judging by those serious eyes, she didn't seem to be kidding. Uh-oh.

"I beg your pardon?" Conan forced an awkward smile to hold himself together.

"You see, baijiu is the only main ingredient we can come up with and I've been combining it with other chemicals to produce a variety of antidote prototypes, because after using any of them a few times, it won't work any more as your immune system would fight against it. I have a great list of nutrients, which are essential for human growth, that I can use with baijiu for that very reason, so when an antidote stops being effective you can have a different one in store. However, we've reached the point where I've used up all the available nutrients and your body has become way too aware of baijiu that soon enough, nothing's going to be able to change you back anymore." Haibara explained to the boy sitting opposite her dryly, with that 'I told you not to take it too many times and you didn't listen now look what you've done' look.

Conan hadn't known what world's end would feel like, but if he were to describe his mental condition at that time, "apocalypse" would be the perfect word for it. What was this? His early April Fools' gift? No, thank you. As if his life wasn't enough troublesome. Damn it, Haibara must be fooling around! That girl could be surprisingly frightening with her creepy taste of humor when teasing him, as everyone has known…

Recognizing the doubt written on the detective's face, Haibara sighed.

"I know it's hard to believe, Kudou-kun. Truth can be very painful sometimes. After seven to eight times of using the new antidote I'm making now, there's very little chance that I could create another. Baijiu is nearly our major constituent, and your body will refuse to let it have impacts on it sooner or later. And when that happens, we'll be back from the beginning with no clue on what would revert the drug. Everything has its limit, you know."

"There is…" Conan bit his lower lip in distress. "… nothing we can do about it?" He felt the bitterness in his voice as each word was uttered. Although it wasn't that he hadn't imagined bad things happening, the thought of him getting stuck in this tiny form of a grade-schooler and going through his childhood twice had never appeared, even in the worst nightmare, seeing that Haibara had always been there with temporary cures whenever he needed, not once letting him down. It'd be a lie if he said he had absolute faith in her, still, she was among the people whom around he could be himself, not feigning innocence, not deceiving his beloveds. He believed in Haibara's ability; he was sure that Haibara would come up with the resolution to his misfortune. And now she was saying she couldn't. _"I guess the higher hope you have, the more disappointed you'll be when it all falls apart, hm..."_ The formal teenager mused acidly.

"… Actually, there is this specific thing that I'm a hundred percent positive that if I have it in hand, the teenage Heisei Holmes, as what they call you, will be able to come back, for good - though, I'm not sure about the safety…" Haibara said with uncertainty as her eyes rolled around the room restlessly.

"Really?" Conan jerked his head up, eyes gleaming with hope again. See, Haibara would never let him down! She was even offering an everlasting cure!

"Yeah. And the job of getting it is very dangerous that you might-"

"No biggie! For the past year I've been living aware that my cover could be blown any moment! What can be more risky than having your life on the edge of death every second?"

"Even though it might put you in such a danger like having your head taken away or a bullet right at the heart before the antidote could be created?"

"Threats can never threaten me, you know, Haibara. And if you're confident that it'll help concoct the antidote then I see no reason why I shouldn't seek for it."

"… Okay. Okay. Don't tell me I didn't warn you." Knowing the stubborn detective too well, Haibara gave in before he decided to do crazy to her. Well, the idea that she was going to suggest to him now wasn't much less insane either. She cleared her throat, trying to sound as calm as possible. "You see, right after my lab was burned down, I did some investigating and found out that the Organization had taken my research which contains information of APTX4869, and the container of trial drugs was gone, too. I'm assuming that They still wish to use it in the future, hence brought the uncompleted study of mine back to the headquarters. If you can possess either the drug or my paperwork, I can absolutely invent the antidote, and a permanent one, too. As for my opinion, only a single pill is enough so you should just snatch one or two tablets rather than carry my mountainous pile of documents home."

"…. Huh?" The boy turned perplexed and "huh" was the only feedback his brain could organize for the mouth to give out.

"Ah, sorry, guess I didn't phrase it intelligible enough. Let me make it short. We need APTX4869."

Conan's jaw dropped.

Conan felt his jaw dropping on the floor as soon as Haibara finished her statement. Hey, no, wait, why does this scene seem like it's repeated? This must be a before time April Fools' sick joke, right? Did that Haibara know her taste of humor is very-

"Don't gape at me. I'm being honest here."

The shrunken girl glared at Conan coldly; she half-predicted that he wouldn't buy her anyway, so if he disagreed to go after that damned drug, it would perfectly not be a bother to her. Besides, since the Organization was continuing inquiring into APTX4869, the deadliest poison ever, the lab in which They were operating would be hidden deep, deep inside the HQ, so in order to obtain it, Conan would have to break into Their lair, which was pretty much the same as suicide. If she were to make a decision, she'd rather stay a child than throw herself in the fire not knowing whether she could survive or not.

But then again, this Kudou guy was, apparently, capable of doing just about everything a human can and you'd be very much insulting him if you think he'd back down when it comes to crime and injustice. A man of only sixteen years of age yet had collided with hundreds of homicides and thousands of killers. A boy who was merely going through his adolescence yet held tightly the dream of purifying the world. A human yet owned the invincible bravery and an outstanding mind that might be no less brilliant in comparison to Athena's. Haibara shrugged mentally at the thinking, wondering if she ought to laugh at this massive dumbness or be fear of his indomitable determination, until Conan jumped in the middle of her pondering.

"We need to have a plan." Conan said with a serious voice, entirely in his detective mode.

"What?" Now it was Haibara's turn to gape.

"Don't 'what?' me! You're not going to burst into that hell on earth den without any preparation, are you?" Narrowing his eyes, Conan deadpanned.

"Wait… Are you for real?! This is the Black Organization we're talking about!"

"And that's exactly why I'm for real!"

"What do you mean? Have you turned mad?!"

"No, I haven't! Calm down and listen to me, Haibara! Up until now, we've been chasing after them in silence, only taking actions when necessary, and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of taking the passive role. I've been considering it for a long time already, but I wasn't sure if I should or not. And earlier when you told me that you need the drug, my mind was set. This game of cat and mouse must come to an end as soon as possible."

"Shush! You don't know what you're talking about!"

"Oh I do. I _do_ know."

"What about your family? What about the Detective Boys? What about Agase-hakase? What about _Ran_? I know you also know that by doing this, you're putting everyone involved with Conan Edogawa in danger!"

"Think about it, Haibara. It's just a matter of time before They know of my existence. It's just a matter of time before They extend Their power and take control of Japan, maybe even Asia. When that day arrives, not only us and our beloveds, but also everyone, every _innocent_ one, would become Their victim."

"You…"

"You have to kill it before it lays eggs."

"…"

"Haibara, I don't run away from fate. I conquer it."

"… But I have to think about this. Better said than done, you know."

Haibara looked down and bit her lips, scarcely succeeded in preventing her tiny figure from shivering, mind from wondering, eyes from terrifying, breath from quavering. That goddam book geek made sense. No, he always made sense, because his logic system never let him say nonsense. But she wasn't ready to accept it. Her body still tensed up at the briefest mention of any member of the Organization she wanted to vomit. The desire to take Them down had not once subdued yet she was helpless, and she blamed herself for not having the guts Conan had, for being such a coward, for failing to avenge her sister. Her fear was what held her down, refusing to let go of her, no matter how hard she tried to escape from it. There were times that she almost resorted to halting working on the antidote and lying that she gave up to make Conan stop shortening his own life; yes there were. Being a seven-year-old wasn't that bad: the fresh feeling the kids brought along with, the elementary classes at school, those comfortable and warm meals with Agasa-hakase, the relaxing adventures that sometimes the old professor organized for the children, not to mention the fun in teasing Conan when he wasn't in his detective mode. Comparing to the condition during the time she was still in the Organization, this serene and peaceful lifestyle was what she had been craving for, so much that if shooting stars really granted wishes, she'd wait for every single one and scream out her hope for things to stay this way eternally. However, each time, it was Conan who pulled her back to reality, the cruel reality, before dreamland could lure her in too deep.

_"Don't look away, Haibara. Don't look away from your fate."_

In her brain, his words echoed, soberly, steadily, hauntingly. They probably were the only things that kept her out of hallucination and reminded her that the two of them wouldn't be safe until the Organization was completely destroyed. Doubting that she would ever be of use due to this shameful weakness Haibara questioned in her head, _"But, Kudou-kun, is it wise facing them now?"_

Sapphire eyes set on a random spot in the room as the other shrunken teen was also immersing in the flow of thoughts. This could be considered the most daring decision Conan had made in his entire life, to become the attacker, not vice versa as he had always been. Being well alert of how heartless animals They were, he and Haibara never thought of confront the whole Organization, unless they suddenly popped up from nowhere deciding to assassinate a famous politician or a CEO of some wealthy companies. Conan's aim was to at least capture one of Them in order to query him, force him to spit out anything he knows and probably use him as a spy. Like Mizunashi Rena. Too bad Gin's suspicion towards her was enough to have her sent to work overseas and guards watching her 24/7, meaning Conan's only source about the men in black had gone and who knows how long he would have to pursue Them to catch another member?

In a flash, the exasperating feeling when Conan heard from Jodie that Mizunashi Rena had been assigned to complete international tasks in Europe came back to him. Yes, that was exactly why he decided to make the move. If he kept waiting like that, he would eventually grow up to sixteen again before they could catch Them; countless people would have died under Their hands during the years. He needed to do something. Every sentence has to have an end and a period to end it, and he would be that period.

"Ai-kun! Shinichi! Dinner's ready!"

A slightly hoarse voice called the not-children couple from the floor above. Conan jumped off his seat and answered, turning his head towards the stairs.

"Coming, Hakase! Let's go, Haibara!"

"…"

"Haibara?"

Conan looked back and saw Haibara sitting on chair, deep in thought. He let out a small sigh with a warming smile and stepped near the girl. Putting a hand on one of her shoulders, he said reassuringly.

"It's now or never, Haibara. I'll protect you, I promise that, but you need to face your fate, too. No one's going to do it for you." Then he grinned. "Now, dinner's waiting! You need to eat first before doing anything, right?"

* * *

Note: If you haven't known, Athena is a Greek goddess, who represents wisdom, courage, law and justice, inspiration, etc. A goddess of perfection, to be short :P

A/N: Woohoo chapter 1! I wrote this during my finals weeks so I was like studying - inspiration struck - books tossed aside - started typing like crazy - inspiration gone - back to the papers - inspiration came again - books tossed aside again - typing typing typing again - lost inspiration again - resumed studying again… Yeah it was an endless revolving circle ha ha! /laughs in pain/

Please tell me if you think Conan and Haibara are too OOC and I'll try to fix it in the next chapter! Because I'm aiming for them not being OOC!

Again, sorry for any difficulty you had while reading because of my nasty English.


	2. Hello

**Chapter 2: Hello.**

Warning: Engrish. Terrible plot development. And OOCness. Really. I duplicated Conan and replaced him with his clone that I was able to take control of. LOL. Wasn't in my best shape while writing this. And many dialogues - I tried to keep them interesting though, please bear with my crappy sense of humor, thank you TTvTT

Rating: K+ for implied bad language, I guess *smiles evilly*

Today's Quote: "Nothing in the world can faze me. Don't waste your time." – Ranma 1/2 (manga).

* * *

A freezing winter night means a warm family meal. Despite the fact that Conan's parents were somewhere in this world and Haibara's were somewhere in another world, they always had the good old professor Agasa as their second parent, who was more than welcome to provide them with a cozy dinner at any time, especially in this kind of weather. And tonight was no doubt one of those nights when the two not-children wanted to have a supper together with the elderly man. Well, there was another purpose for Conan staying overnight, which was to assist Haibara in planning out how to confront the Organization, but food would absolutely be the first priority. A hungry man is an angry man, after all.

For that very reason, Agasa's house this evening felt more "lively" than normal because of Conan's presence. How lively it was, you ask? And why I put "lively" in quotation marks, you ask? We'll see…

"Wow this ochazuke is really good, Hakase! Where did you buy it?"

"Now, now, Shinichi, do you really have to ask that whenever you eat something good in my house?"

"I just want to know where you got this from so I can take Hattori there next time! He said he wants to try ochazuke in Tokyo when he arrives here tomorrow!"

"Wait. That Osakan detective is coming?"

Haibara's lips left the bowl edge as she turned to Conan and asked. _"Don't tell me…"_

"Yeah, the Toyamas decided to take on a family trip for the winter and Hattori's left behind with nothing to do so he's coming here to get rid of his boredom." Conan finished up his green tea with a quiet slurp and put his bowl on the table. "Maybe tomorrow night."

"Will you tell him about _that_?"

"… Honestly, I don't know. He respects my privacy, but he's too sharp to not notice any of my movements and too nice of a friend to ignore what we're going to do, if he finds out about it."

"I'm still not feeling okay about this at all, Kudou-kun."

"Neither am I, but we can't help it. That's the fastest way to end this miserable chain of events."

"…"

"Come on, I promise to get all the help we can. And from the best, too. We've got the FBI, the Japanese police force and CIA if necessary, what else…" Conan held out his hand and started to count with his fingers.

"… How about _The Twin_?" The words were rather breathed out than spoken clearly from Haibara's mouth.

"Sure, we can get them… Wait, what?" Conan jumped, eyes widen and mouth wide open. "Oi, oi, you sure, Haibara?"

"You once said their abilities were one of the finest that you had ever known, right? And I think your mother told me they are working in England as freelance secret agents? We can ask for their help if they're not busy with anything."

Conan hesitated for a few seconds. Now that Haibara mentioned it, to him, if there was anything that could be compared to the Black Organization in terms of creepiness then it would absolutely be _The Twin_, especially the older one of the duo. Sometimes he had to wonder if it was him being so bad at explanation (except when solving a case, of course) or they were just beyond words. Lucky thing he only met them once or twice every few years. Although, since he was in need of good assistance, maybe he should call them over.

"So?" Haibara questioned and grabbed Conan's bowl, together with hers and Agasa's, preparing to do the dishes. The professor had already gone to the kitchen to get some desert for the two.

"You've never met them before, have you, Haibara?" Conan handed his chopsticks to the little girl and mumbled a small thank you.

"No, but Yukiko-san thinks highly of them, so I suppose they're as good as you?"

"… That's… Well… Not really, but… Uh, kind of… In a different aspect," said Conan. His uncertain tone made Haibara give him a wondering glance, but it looked like he didn't want to explain it as he quickly changed the topic. "Anyway, let me call Kaa-san and ask for their numbers. They'd been living in America and moved to England four years ago, not sure when they started to be agents though. Because of their job, I can't meet or even talk to them very often, but one thing for sure, they were good at freaking me out whenever they had the chance, and maybe they still are." Conan fished out his Shinichi cellphone and called his mother's mobile.

"Ho, what do we have here? The Great Detective of the East is scared of some two random people?" Drawing a smirk on her face, Haibara said in a sarcastic tone.

"They're no two random people, they're my cousins! Just wait until you meet those freaks." Conan scowled, slightly embarrassed. This Haibara was never tired of teasing him, was she? But at least she seemed to be less distressed now, and that was good. "Moshi moshi? Ah, Kaa-san, it's me. I want to…"

Haibara went silent to let Conan talk to his mother, carried the dishes to the sink, and began the washing progress. Cold water on two warm hands made the girl shiver as her small fingers held tightly on the sponge and rubbed the dish in a circle. As calm as she tried to be, her mind was the complete opposite. The chills hit her as she began to let herself be lost in thoughts. Life would soon not be the same like this anymore, not be peaceful like this anymore; she would be living in terror and be fear of anything that could happen. Kudou was a tough guy, both physically and mentally, she understood that; however, dealing with your everyday typical criminal and handling a whole bunch of well-organized plus well-equipped professional assassins were two very different issues. One tiny mistake and not only the guy himself, but also all the people who were related to him would be put in danger. Haibara wouldn't mind her being targeted – she had expected an ending like this when she decided to escape from the Organization. It was the children and the old professor who were more of a concern to her. The Shounen Tantei, they were young, so young, too young, to be involved in this. And the professor… Haibara bit her lips. If anything happened to him, the one to whom she owed her entire life-

"WHAT THE HECK?!"

Clash.

Haibara's pondering was cut short by a frightened cry, followed by a big crash on the floor. She winced at the shards and turned her head to Conan annoyedly, who made her almost have a heart attack and break her precious bowl. He was now standing on the sofa in the living room with a face a hundred percent panicked, literally screaming to the phone with all guns blazing. _"Sometimes that death magnet could get really excited, huh…"_ She collected the fragments on the floor and threw them into the trash bin before continuing her housework. Behind her heard the sound of Agasa stepping to Conan, trying to calm the boy down.

"S-Shinichi! Take it easy! What's going on?" Agasa held Conan's shoulders and pinned him down, but Conan instantly stood up again and shouted.

"Why, in the seven deadly sins, are you guys here?! And you! Stop telling me that you have telepathy! I won't buy it! Being a psychologist doesn't make you a telepathist!"

"Shinichi…!" The professor whined.

"Of course I need you, but… Oi! No Shin-chan or Co-chan! No, no and no! What's so cute about that "Shinichi-hime" nickname?! And what exactly is your definition of cute?! Anyway…"

"Shinichi-"

"What? Sweet Jesus it's been four years and how come you are still so damn good at irritating me? Hey you, don't side with your sister!"

"Shi-"

"Kaa-san, do something! Wha- Not you, too! Why is no one on my side? Yes, yes, you show how much you love me by teasing me, right, very funny. Now can we please just- Oi! Oi! Listen! Don't laugh at my voice! I'M NOT SULKING!"

Failing to make the boy get a grip of himself, he called Haibara for help. "Ai-kun, can you give me a hand?"

Haibara answered with a vague yes and put the last cleaned plate on the rack. Then, she picked up the lemon pie that the professor had prepared on the table as she strolled out from the kitchen, observing the energetically flailing about Conan, very much amused. It had been a while since he last went wild like this, and she would be more than interested in finding out who had taken away his sanity. Then again, up until now, the only one that could drive him crazy was no other than Haibara, so whomever he was talking to must be a real pain in his neck.

"I'M TELLING YOU TO EFFING STOP-"

"Ahem. Excuse me for interrupting, but your lemon pie's ready." Hovering the dish right behind Conan's nose, she cleared her throat ere in a monotonous tone she spoke.

"MAKING FUN OF- Lemon pie?"

Like a cat that finally caught its long-awaited-to-be-eaten mouse, Conan immediately ceased screaming and looked down at Haibara, eyes beaming in overjoy. He withdrew his attention from the phone and had it upon the pastry, which was pervading a delicious smell, tempting enough to make everyone drool over it. Oh God wasn't it such a babe-

_"What was that, Shin-chan~~? We're not making fun of lemon pie~~"_

A girl's- no, the voice was too croaky for a girl, but the way s/he modulated her/his voice was rather feminine, rang out cheerfully from the cell. Conan snapped and scowled again.

"I'm not talking to you guys! I'm hanging up. Remember, I want both of you here, tomorrow night. And no, Kaa-san, you don't need to come and I don't need you to come."

The detective folded his phone and panted grumpily. After a few seconds of relaxing himself, he sat back on the sofa, while head turning left and right trying to find the appetizing pie earlier. Haibara placed it on the table, picked three pieces, put each on a paper plate then asked if the professor and Conan would want a slice. The younger male turned happy at the offer and with a fork he satisfyingly tasted the homemade sweet. He purred mentally.

Ooh, this babe was good! A moderate amount of sugar mixed with the slight sourness of lemon, not to mention the richness that the cream had, and everything was melted, was combined together in harmonization right when they met the tip of your tongue. And the crust was absolute tenderness yet it was crunchy enough to not break into crumbs if you could handle it nicely. Conan enjoyed the wonderful feeling inside his mouth so contently as if there was only one more step left before he finally reached Heaven's gate.

"Shin-i-chi Ku-do-u. Knock knock. Back to earth, please. Your eyes are sparkling like the Sirius." Using her fingers to pull Conan's left ear, Haibara spoke loudly, spelling every syllable into it and caused the boy who was daydreaming to give her a disturbing glare. "Really, since when did you have your last lemon pie?"

"I'm not sure…" murmured Conan, gently laid down his fork. "If Ran knows how obsessed I am with lemon pies then I'm dead. There aren't that many people who like those gorgeous, creamy beauties…"

"Got it, got it. No more with your beloved food," deadpanned Haibara. "By the way, who were you talking on the phone?"

"…" Paused for a while to think Conan responded. "The flip side of a lemon pie."

"Excuse me?" Haibara raised an eyebrow, looking half confused and half doubting that the guy in front of her was really the oh so great Kudou Shinichi.

"I said, 'The flip side of a lemon pie.'"

"My apology, but I'm not quite following you."

"Ah, here, Haibara, let me tell you a story," said Conan, fixing his sitting posture to a more comfortable one. "Once upon a time, in a country far away, there was a princess, a very attractive princess, whose name was Lemon Pie. She was of the finest that God had created: a charming face, a lithe figure, a pretty voice, a pure heart, an innocent mind, etc. Everything about her was flawless and-"

"Shut up and get to the point, will you?" Haibara impatiently broke in her friend's narration. What was it with him and lemon pies tonight?!

"Just kidding, just kidding. It was Kaa-san, and those two."

"You mean_ The Twin_?"

"Yeap. The one and only. They've returned to Japan and are with my parents now, to celebrate Christmas. But I'm pretty sure that it was because they knew I was going to ask them for help, even though how they did I don't want to figure it out."

"You mean you freaking out a moment ago was their work?"

"Ugh… Yes. I told you, they irritate me whenever they have a chance. Thank God we only come across each other when they have some mission in Japan."

"Hm." Haibara hummed in excitement. "You have my attention, Kudou-kun. Please continue the story of these special siblings of yours."

"I'd rather not. All they bring to me is unpleasant memories…"

"Ah, but you still entrust them with being a part of our plan, don't you?"

"Baro. Just because they have the skills of an FBI agent, maybe better, and they're experienced with dealing with mafias."

"Now that you mention it, I didn't think that you'd actually involve a family member. Even that Osakan friend wasn't supposed to take part in this."

"Same reason. They know how things go, and Hattori doesn't. If they weren't good, the bad guys would have killed them a long time ago, not letting the two wandering around England and scaring the hell out of them. I have neither interacted with them a lot nor can explain much about their capabilities, but let's just say that they're appropriate for the job. And as I said, you'll know when you meet them." Conan smiled confidently, before he suddenly remembered something and added. "**Well, despite the fact that they can annoy a person to the extent of committing suicide.**"

* * *

It was about nine o'clock into the night when Conan was skimming through Agasa's enormous pile of newspapers and Haibara was on the swivel chair gluing her eyes to the computer screen, both were searching for some news or article that seemed to be related to the Black Organization, mostly from about six years or further ago, preceding the time Haibara started working for Them. The scientist hadn't find anything worthy yet, but she was quite amazed at how deep she could sneak into some highly-protected websites just by wandering on Google with a little patience and watching people talking about how to intrude those sites on forums, though they were merely infamous stock companies' sites that many wanted to take down for their notorious actions, which weren't what she was looking for. Glaring at all the unnecessary data she got, Haibara sighed at how wicked people could be, all because of money.

Next to Haibara was a busy Conan sitting on the floor, flipping pages then tossing papers aside. For the past few hours, he had gone over the professor's newspaper collection within the past seven years to no avail. Darn this cursed Organization for being so flipping good at keeping everyone's mouth shut. This CEO was murdered by a mysterious shadow, that president was found dead in his room yet no suspects were discovered, blah blah blah… Ugh, if only he could find a clue, any clue, about Their whereabouts… Or someone could give him Their address as a Christmas present, that would be awesome. Conan blankly put the newspapers in chronological order again and grasped a cord within reach, tying them neatly. Pushing the mini mountain of papers aside, he continued with the next stack, which consisted of news from eight years ago.

The house was noiseless except for the small sounds of Conan turning the page and Haibara's fingers gliding on the keyboard. Agasa, being a man whose stamina had been receding as he aged, had soon gone to bed for a good night sleep after a (not so) hard-working day.

A few minutes later found Haibara leaving the computer, for her eyes were weary of staring at the computer for so long, turning the TV on, switching to a music channel then lying down on the sofa to rest. On the other hand Conan, working behind the sofa, was still as restless as ever as he kept on reading the boring articles.

_"Useless stuff… Hah…" _The boy sighed in disappointment and stretched out his arm nonchalantly to get a different paper – a magazine, to be exact. The cover didn't have that many titles that he found catchy enough, so he decided to just skim through the contents, when he caught something outstanding. A tiny text on the upper left corner of the page. Conan lowered his head to take a closer look and studied it. Then navy blue orbs widen in shock. He hastily skipped to that article, gaping at the sight of the information he had stumbled on. He called.

"Hai-"

"We apologize for the interruption, but the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has just received a new heist note from Kaitou KID…" Not letting Conan finish his sentence, the music show was temporarily suspended with a gleeful voice of a young female broadcaster. Haibara sat up to watch and Conan rose from the floor simultaneously, craning his head forward over the sofa to look at the TV. "… no one in the Kaitou KID taskforce has solved it yet and luckily, we have had Nakamori-keibu's permission to make a copy of his note and will now present it to our dear audiences…"

Like a nature instinct, Conan rapidly pulled out his pen and notebook, ready to copy down the riddle.

_Now the year is ending_

_Aries marks a new beginning_

_The past is no longer profiting_

_Listen, fireworks are cheering_

_Miss Guernica is also waiting_

_And looks like she is suffering_

_But no worry, for I am coming to milady._

_(Kaitou KID caricature.)_

"Oh God…" Conan dumbfounded at the weird note.

"Hm? Have you solved it, Kudou-kun?" Haibara said without looking at Conan; the television was now airing some lame but quite funny commercials. "That was fast-"

"Ah, no… I've come up with a few ideas as the hints are quite obvious, but to connect them to create an understandable statement isn't that simple. This riddle is rather complex and needs time to be deciphered. Anyhow, I'll deal with it later. Come, I found something. Some very appealing thing."

Haibara did as she was told and walked to the detective, wondering what he had discovered. A big grin Conan flashed, holding out the magazine. His index finger directed to a short paragraph. The girl lowered her head, eyes running over the colorful letters. The article went like this:

_"Last night, day XX month YY year XYXY, for the first time in history, violence was seen during a Kaitou KID heist. Nakamori-keibu and his taskforce were chasing down KID as usual when they suddenly heard a loud bang, which appeared to be a gunshot. Knowing the thief's non-violence policy very well, the inspector doubted that an out-of-control event might have taken place and ordered half of his team to proceed with pursuing KID (or at least what they thought was KID), while him and the other half went after the noise. After several more gunshots, the inspector got to the source of all the terrifying noise, which was on the roof of a nearby building, and to his surprise, he spotted the bandit talking to a man clad in black. They exchanged a few words; the man began shooting; the inspector burst in; KID escaped with his hang glider; the man vanished into the night. Everything happened too quickly for the inspector to catch up with. As the inspector told the story to the press, a person suggested a theory that maybe he was one of Kaitou KID's accomplices and they were practicing avoiding bullets. No further information was given upon this issue._

_By Ari Takayama."_

"Now, what do you think of this, Haibara?" Exclaimed Conan.

"… Perhaps, Kaitou KID is one of their targets?" Haibara made a thinking posture and muttered. "But… How come I haven't any knowledge of this? And how come the police let this slide? Gunshots in a KID heist is the most unbelievable thing on earth…"

"I'm positive of it, black-clothed people with guns and are crazy enough to have business with a no less crazy thief can only be Them. Also, this was written in March of eight years ago." Conan pointed to the date. "You hadn't started working for the Org at that moment, so it's no strange that you didn't know. For your last question, since I've been reading news in reverse time order, I noticed that KID was still holding heists like he used to after that incident, leading everyone to actually believe in that stupid thesis and let it slide as an unusual affair in Kaitou KID's many unusual performances, and then he vanished some time around the end of that very same year."

"The Org and an unexplained disappearance. Sounds too coincidental to be a coincident. Although, what on earth can you deduce from this, besides the assumption that KID had might been killed by Them?"

Conan's hand lifted up to his face softly. His index finger bent under the right rim to support it while the middle one pushed the bridge up as he smiled keenly.

"Oh, believe me, I can deduce more than just that."

* * *

Note: Sirius is a star, in astronomy. Not Sirius Black in Harry Potter LOL.

Wow I didn't think that I'd get any review at all, and look what I have! Three! *Q* You guys are awesome, I love you! *Q*

**Tobina:** Awww thank you for reviewing! And well to my opinion, I feel like Conan's now more determined to take the Org down because of the people's sake, not of the drug, or at least he just wants to destroy the Org for whatever reason he has, but not for the drug xP I mean like, I think the manga hasn't mentioned a lot about the drug lately so I just have the feeling that Conan just… dropped the issue already. I don't know OTL…

**zXFallenAngelsXz:** Ahahaha thank you! Honestly, I was afraid that the milk thingy would be ridiculous xD I don't think there's anything out there that could be combined with soymilk to make humans grow like, 10 years taller/bigger, but that was the first thing that came across my mind so I just decided to use it xP Thank you for the review again! I hope the number of grammar mistakes has decreased in this chapter! TTvTT

**Clams-and-Rainbows:** Well to be honest I just want to see how a genius (Hakuba) will love a freak (my OC) xD And Haibara deserves someone nice who cares for her, too! Thank you very much for the review!

~oOo~

A/N aka ranting: That riddle killed me more than once. I swear. I think it's the most complicated thing I've ever created in my life. It took me more than a week to make and when I read it again I still had difficulties understanding it – my very own riddle OTL. Anyone interested in solving it? Conan did drop a (very, very, very vague) hint there for you guys! ;D Or you guys are more interested in what Conan has deduced and how? xDD

A lot of events occurred in this chapter, huh? I think I rushed things up a little bit… didn't I? Especially the introduction of my OCs… I think I should make things slower but this and that happened so I just gave in to the idea. Anyhow, any comment on or impression of the OCs yet? I spent a lot of time to make up their biographies, and when I finished I was like "Oh damn what kind of freaks did I just create…" xD I just hope you guys don't find them annoying… xD Also, for the creepiness of Conan's lemon pie obsession… There were many reasons for it… Like… I was hungry… I was under the pressure of exams… I've been drinking more coffee than usual… I wanted lemonade… I also just finished re-reading Shokugeki no Soma and Kitchen Princess, the two manga in where every food had its own soul and could deliver happiness to the diners (main cause)… So… *awkward smile*

And I've been having more than 3 cups of coffee a day (finals is the time when I sleep very little or no sleep at all) while writing this so it's kind of silly, I guess… I want to balance both the humor and the seriousness but finals = despair so I was trying to drag myself out of misery by writing something fun. And I'm new to writing so yeah, my writing is really clumsy… I hope I can get more of a hang of this in the next chapter.

**Please review so that I can improve myself! Reviews and/or criticisms are very much loved and appreciated! **((btw I'm a masochist so feel free to be straightforward))

Ps ((spoiler)): Next chapter (and maybe the upcoming chapters) will be utterly pure mindfucking and full of (shitty) deductions that raped my brain so badly! Please look forward to it! Thank you for reading!


	3. The Genesis

**Chapter 03: The Genesis.**

Warning: Engrish, mindfuckery. I'm bad at explanation. Consider yourself warned.

Rating: K

Quote of the day: "Between the wolf and the hunter… Who is really hunting whom?" - .hack/GU+ (manga).

* * *

Conan closed the magazine and handed it to Haibara. His eyes turned sharper and his voice became lower, more collected as he spoke, detective mode a hundred percent on.

"As you have noticed since you've already met Kaitou KID, it appeared that he is very young, maybe twenty, no, under twenty, about seventeen years old. That means eight years ago he wasn't even in his teens yet. We all know that Kaitou KID first heist was eighteen years ago, so unless he got himself a tablet of APTX 4869 too, it is most likely that the current KID is not the KID from that time, but a second generation."

"An apprentice, I assume." Haibara commented.

"Yes, it's the most probable guess." nodded Conan. "This is a very interesting case, if you look into it thoroughly. Now, for things to get easier to follow, let's start with the first generation KID. There are two theories: one is that he's dead, the other is that he's still alive and is somewhere on this planet. If he's still alive then there's no reason for him to retire from being KID, unless he thinks he's too old and needs another KID to replace him. If that were the case then the current KID would be undoubtedly an apprentice of the first one and should have showed up right after he (the first one) disappeared. Therefore there's a high chance that the original KID is no longer alive, and a lower chance that something happened to him and compelled him to hide for eight years until the comeback of the apprentice.

"Now to the apprentice. Still with the lower chance of the original going undercover, the apprentice must have been under training throughout the time period when he (the original) was said to be missing. According to the impression I got from the current KID, he should be about nine years old when the original decided to drop his job and passed it over to him. How could he teach a child how to do magic tricks and steal jewelries so well that the child has become a professional like he is now? It would take a massive amount of time to do so. Only a man with a very close relationship with the child would be able to do that. An older brother doesn't sound too good, for the age gap is probably 18 years or more. Possibly an uncle, possibly a father. I'd say father, because he could be with the child 24/7 and no one would cast a doubt upon their relationship, but an uncle isn't out of the question, if the child had no father and had to live with the uncle from the beginning. And with the higher chance of the original being dead, it's even more possible that the apprentice is really his son. The apprentice must have educated himself because I don't think there's any magician out there capable of teaching the Kaitou KID. But we have to include all the possibilities. He (the apprentice) must also be doing this to revenge for his father. Very reasonable. His father died, he found out, decided to avenge his father, and spent eight years training by himself. He has no one to teach him yet the current KID is absolutely not a person to be joked with; that talent must be running in the blood of their family. I think he's currently enrolled in some high school in Japan, since all the heists from when he came back were all in Japan, not overseas. Kaitou KID is obviously very rich - just look at all the things he prepares for each heist - so he must have something preventing him from holding heist abroad. And for a seventeen-year-old like him as I have observed, that something has to be school.

"Back to the original. The original was a skilled magician, and in order to master all those tricks, he had to practice them in real life, too. Obviously he couldn't do that on his own. He would need a whole audience, not just a few people, to observe him, to watch him, to tell him if his performance was good enough so that he could improve it. Since KID was, well, he still is, one crazy bastard himself holding heists in front of so many people like that, it's best to have a lot of people coming to his performances in real life also. With his talent and all that, I'm pretty sure he was extremely famous at that time. In conclusion, we should look for-"

"A well known magician who has died or mysteriously disappeared eight years ago, has a son or a nephew or a male relative that is a high school student in Japan, around seventeen years old. That youth should also be an amateur magician himself and/or is a student of a currently popular magician. Am I correct?" Haibara summed up.

"Yes. I don't think there will be too many magicians with a special background like that."

"I'll look it up tomorrow. Hah. Who could have thought the Kaitou KID's identity could be so easily found out like this?" Haibara took out a sticky note to bookmark the page and put the magazine on the table.

"Something tells me this guy isn't an easy one to deal with, even if we found out who he is. We'll just have to wait and see."

Conan said while gathering the scattered newspapers on the floor, loading them into one pile next to many other piles of papers. Then the two gave each other a quick goodnight before they retired to their respective rooms. Both had different thoughts about all the problems that they had been facing, but they were concerned about the same matters. First the Organization, then the complicated affair of Kaitou KID, then the heist note. Tomorrow would be a very tiring day. Not to mention Heiji was coming. And Conan's seem-to-be very scary cousins, too.

* * *

The following morning was much better than the day before as the snow fell at a slower pace and in a less vigorous way, nearly melted into water as soon as it touched the ground. The sun was shining bright, penetrating the clouds and warming up the earth. Altogether with the robins singing it was a lovely day during such a winter, marking the first day of the Japanese's long awaited winter break. Most of the people around the area had gone for a short vacation, leaving the house of one certain old professor the only one that was still occupied in the neighborhood.

The time was about 10 AM and the professor was out for some grocery shopping, entrusting the duty of guarding the house to Conan and Haibara. Haibara had gotten up since early morning to do some experiments to create the last antidote for Conan and was now sitting in front of the computer finding magicians who shared the same history like what Conan described yesterday. On the other side of the room, the little detective busied himself with talking to another detective on the phone.

"So you won't be here for dinner?"

"Yeah, I was invited to dinner from an old acquaintance of my father's. His daughter got accepted in University of Tokyo so he wants to celebrate, and I just happen to be in Tokyo at the same time. I'm on my way to his house. Guess Imma see ya late in the night."

"Got it. Haah, and I was about to give you a treat. It's your loss then."

"Ya can do that tomorrow, Kudou!"

"There's only one chance, Hattori, and you missed it. Well, I've got to call Ran now, later!"  
"You're so stingy… See ya."

"Oh wait there's one more thing-"

"Ah, Arai-san, good afternoon! Bye Kudou, gotta run!"

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Wha- He hung up on me!" Conan blurted out, turned to Haibara with a shocked expression. Heiji had been insisting Conan on calling him more often because they hadn't talked to each other about the Black Organization for quite a while, so Heiji feared that Conan was hiding something from him. And now when Conan finally called he just cut short their conversation like that!

"What did you want to tell him?" Haibara said while her eyes were glued to the computer screen, not very much attention was noticed in her voice.

"Well I just happened to find a listening device in the flower pot this morning and I'm pretty sure is Sane's doing." Conan scratched his head. "If she knows about Hattori she might plan something crazy to 'welcome' him to the Kudou mansion. I wanted to warn him, but oh well. He's a little hot-blooded, but he's not any normal guy to mess with, after all."

"Sane?" Haibara stopped typing and inclined her head a little and looked at Conan.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you! I'm talking about Sane, Sane Fujimine. She's the older one of The Twin, my mom's niece. And the younger one is Daichi Kudou, my dad's nephew."

"Huh? They're not… twins?"

"Nah, many thought so too when they first heard what people call the two of them. But no, they're not twins. They just happen to be the same age and share a hell lot of things in common so they call themselves _The Twin_." Conan stepped to Haibara and said, flipping the papers on the desktop as if he was looking for something.

"I'm getting curious, Kudou-kun. These two sound like very interesting people; I'm looking forward to meeting them." Haibara chuckled and got off the chair so that Conan could have more access to the desk. "You might want to search that pencil pot over there. It's an ideal place to plant bugs."

"Okay. I'll go look some place else." Said Conan, ignoring the pencil pot and opening the drawers of the desk instead.

"Huh?"

"They don't do things like normal people do, Haibara. Of course they didn't place listening devices where normal people would place them." Conan deadpanned without turning his head to face Haibara, continued the search. "One is from my mother's side and the other is from my father's side, what do you expect? Oh and do you have a hairpin or something small?"

"Hahaha. I'm really dying to see your cousins right now, Kudou-kun." Digging inside the pocket of the lab coat that she had been wearing since earlier, Haibara took out a mini pipette with a tip bigger than a needle a bit. She handed it to Conan. "Is this okay?"

"Perfect. Thanks." Conan took the pipette from Haibara and slid it in one of the keyholes of the drawers, adjusting the angle constantly. "And sure, don't take back what you said when you finally meet them."

"I won't. And what are you doing picking a lock that's not even locked?" Haibara crossed her arms.

"..." Conan turned a deaf ear to Haibara and inserted the tip of the pipette in deeper.

"Care to tell me what's going on?"

"Aha!" The tip finally touched a small object within the hole; Conan beamed. "Found it!"

"Found what? Kudou-kun, what exactly are you doing?"

Sneaking the tip behind the thing he just found, Conan gently pressed the body of the pipette against the wall of the drawer so that the tip could push out whatever was in its way. A small, crushed piece of paper fell out of the hole, clacking the floor. Conan picked it up with a triumphant smile, hurriedly got rid of the paper to reveal a tiny ball of metal. Presenting it to Haibara, he dumbfounded the girl by the weird item in front of her very own eyes.

"What… is that?"

"One of The Twin's special listening devices. Don't even ask me how they're planted in our house. These things get smaller every time I see them and now look, they have been minimized to the size of an eye of a needle! Cool, huh?" Lifting the bug up to examine it, Conan exclaimed, very much fascinated. Normally he would freak out because of this, fearing that Vermouth was spying the house again, but the only ones able to produce such minute a bug could only be his two cousins. Only them could come up with the most bizarre idea of making a tiny bug, wrapping it in paper, and hiding it _inside_ one of the _keyholes_ of the drawers of their cousin's desk.

"… Can I take back what I said earlier?" Haibara took one step backward. Okay, maybe these two were really as scary as how Conan told they were. Did they camp somewhere around the house last night and creep into the house?

"Too bad. I think they already heard you." Conan said and put the bug near his mouth; he spoke. "Hey Sane, Daichi, I know you're listening and are already planning on something, but be easy on Hattori, okay? He's one of the nicest people you could ever find."

As soon as Conan finished his sentence, a card was shot from outside through the window, immediately lodged in the floor right next to Conan's feet. The two not-children startled before Conan bent down to pull it out of the ground then read out loud the scribble on it.

"'Don't worry, we're just checking if he's really qualified to be the Detective of the East and to be our dear Heisei Holmes' best friend. Love, Sane & Daichi (heart symbol).' Haa, you guys really have nothing to do, do you? And seriously, shooting a note like shooting a bullet? Maybe I should put you guys on top of the list of people suspected to be KID."

Conan sighed hopelessly and threw both the card and the crumbled piece of paper in the trashcan but kept the bug to study it. Haibara still wasn't fully recovered from the shock that The Twin gave her, though she was sober enough to get back to work. Now she understood why Conan didn't want to talk about these two. Yeah, they were truly something. Haibara got on the swivel again, wondering what would happen tonight when she met them. And she thought those guys from the Organization were insane enough.

In the meanwhile, in the backyard of a house next to the professor's, two mysterious figures popped out from a bush with mischievous grins on their faces. The shorter one used one hand to flick off the leaves on the other's pants as they (the shorter) took out an electric device, which was as big as a normal notebook, from their backpack. The taller person received it from their company and turned it on, mumbling.

"Kenzo Arai: head of Arai Corporation, 54 years old. Wife: Reika Arai, 48 years old. Children: Older daughter, Emi Arai, 26 years old, currently working as a talented stylist in the U.S.; younger daughter: Sayuri Arai, 18 years old, graduated from Hibiya High School, already got accepted and will attend University of Tokyo next April, law major."

"Sounds like an educated family, right, Dai-chan?" The shorter one commented from behind with a husky voice that sounded similar to a male's.

"Extremely well-educated, Sacchan. That Sayuri girl went to Hibiya High School, which is, I heard, the best public school in Japan. And she takes law." The boy who was called "Dai-chan" nodded, pointed his index finger at the screen. "She has two best friends who will also go to University of Tokyo - wow talk about smartypants. One is Hoshi Mamoru, female, engineering major, birthday: October 8th, height: 182cm - what the hell, weight: 63kg; and the other is Akito Nakamura, male, psychology major, birthday: April 24th, height: 164cm, weight: 52kg."

"Perfect! I'll be the psychology dude, you take the engineering girl, 'kay? Ah so lucky that I take psychology too!" The other chirped gleefully and grabbed the backpack on the ground.

"Why am I the female _again_?"

"Don't whine, that Akito guy is shorter than Hoshi and I'm shorter than you too!"

"Oh yeah… You're right…"

"Then, shall we go? That family's villa isn't very far from here. We might catch up in time."

"Ok, sis."

And the two curious shadows left the garden in silence with the speed of light, heading to the house of the Arai family, not knowing what was waiting for them. It seemed like not only was Conan a death magnet but his misfortune was also effecting the people around him, too.

* * *

**A/N:** That's it for chapter 3! It's short but took me forever OTL… How was the deduction? I hope it was convincing enough? I'm sorry if any part of the deduction sounds unreasonable. I don't have an IQ of 400 like _some certain geniuses_ so that's pretty much the best my brain can do… And I know I said there'd be a lot of mindfuckery in this chapter but I just lost my notebook which contained all the deductions I came up with about KID's heist note so I guess I'll be saving them for the next chapter. (Or I might skip the explanation part if I can't find my notebook and fail to decipher my own riddle…)

And what happened to the call for Ran that Conan was supposed to make? He'd call her later, don't worry.

(rambling) I've been wandering around the internet a lot since I was having trouble writing this chapter and I realized one thing. Capitalization is very important. Really. If any of you has a habit of not capitalizing letters that need to be capitalized, I suggest you fix it. I mean, there's a HUGE difference between this sentence: "Conan is said to be the KID killer," and this sentence: "Conan is said to be the kid killer." See?! Respect the letters that are supposed to be capitalized and capitalize them, guys.

[[spoiler ahead]] By the way, has anyone read chapter 862? I swear I fangirl-ed so hard when I saw the cover. Conan in a karate uniform, oh yeah, that's right… *nosebleed* And then KID vs Makoto ahhh~ This made me have the crazy crack pairing of MakoKaiShin ahahaha xD I'm really looking forward to this case, so much excitement, so many good-looking guys battling against each other! *breathes heavily*


	4. Early Christmas

**Chapter 4: Early Christmas.**

Warning: Engrish, stupid deductions.

Rating: K.

I'm going to stop putting quotes here since I can't find anything suitable and it always takes me a lot of time to do so yet I just end up not being satisfied with what I have.

* * *

"Shinichi! Ai-kun! I'm home!"

Agasa said loudly from the outside, putting one of the big boxes he was carrying down on the ground to free his hand. The said hand made its way to his pocket and grabbed the keys, but before it could do the work of unlocking the door, Haibara had already approached the entrance and turned the knob. In front of her was the old professor panting hard with flushed cheeks on his face as he smiled awkwardly at the little girl.

"Ai-kun… Can you ask Shinichi to come out here and help me get these inside?"

Haibara made a quite disturbed look at the paraphernalia at her feet wondering how the professor was able to drag all these things home. He only went out for almost two hours yet he got for himself quite a bundle, if she were to comment. There were a black, square container made of board, about thirty centimeters cube, two massive bags of vegetables and meat, and another big rectangle wooden box that was as high as up to her chest with four sides having the width of a quarter of a meter behind the professor. The box had a rope attached to it at one end and tied to Agasa's belly at the other end, so that he could pull it along with him easily. Glaring at the tired old man, Haibara made a promise to herself that she would go shopping with him next time so as to prevent him from buying to many stuff, or at least to give him a hand if this happened. She took the two food sacks and called for Conan to carry the rest. The boy groaned out a yes then finished off his uncompleted conversation.

"Yes, because Agasa-hakase said he would be very productive during the break so I'm needed to try all the games he's going to make. I'll be back for school, don't worry. Bye, Ran-neechan."

"It's freezing out there, hurry up." Haibara cut in while walking past Conan, toward the kitchen.

"Coming, coming."

Conan slid the phone in one of the pockets on his pants, feet sprang to the front door. A sudden freeze brought coldness to the boy, causing him to shiver slightly. He untied the string from the professor's stomach and pulled, amazed at how heavy the thing was. Maybe he should go in to get his power kick shoes.

"What do you have in here, Hakase, gold?"

"Ah, no, no! It's actually yours and Haibara's Christmas presents!" Said Agasa in a happy tone, crouching down to lift the other box up.

"Present? I know Haibara's mom is British and British people do celebrate Christmas but not us Japanese so why me…"

"Does it really matter? Don't think I don't know what you guys are up to, Shinichi. Nothing you do in this house can escape my notice."

"So you're doing this to give us some encouragement for the upcoming battle?" Conan glared at the professor.

"Why yes, of course. That's the least I can do for you. And you don't look very surprised?"

"You were obvious yourself, professor." The boy sighed and kept on pulling the rope while beginning to describe his deduction. "You made us eat dinner too early yesterday, around 5pm, I believe. That's the first absurd thing. The food was scorching hot and the microwave wasn't on or the least warm, so I was certain that it was freshly cooked and not leftover; in addition, given that no pots were used, you must have gotten it from a restaurant. Those two details told me that the ochazuke was made not very long ago and you ordered it, because no traces of car tires were visible at the front yard, save some new motorbike tires plus the footsteps of the deliveryman. Also, it was unusual for you to buy us a meal, considering Christmas being tomorrow, and if you did intend to do so, you'd take us to a restaurant, along with the other children, too, not vice versa. And Japanese don't celebrate Christmas so I don't think many restaurants would be closed tomorrow. Therefore, the situation was you going down to the lab wanting to tell us something, but ending up overhearing our talk. Then when we finished discussing there wasn't any sound down there, therefore you thought the atmosphere in the lab must have been tense and wanted to cheer us up. After that, you placed an order for ochazuke, seeing that the dish can be prepared very fast and you used it as an excuse to interrupt our stay in the lab. Right?"

"Hahaha, you really can't deceive a detective, can you? Let alone a good one like you." The professor laughed and set the square box down on the table while Haibara was at the entrance closing the door. He turned to the girl, waving at her. "Ai-kun, come, come!"

A click was heard from the doorknob before Haibara leisurely drew nearer to the two males, quite puzzled on the inside but her face showed the opposite; she stood beside the table as she was told. Agasa grinned and levered the square box's cover open. A handbag was raised up out of it in the hands of the professor in both Conan's and Haibara's astonishment. It had the shape of an upside down isosceles trapezoid, and two leather handles decorated with buckles like belts; each was attached on the left at the middle of the bag's ivory body at one end and on the right at the other end. A thin leather border of creamy blue covered the mouth of the bag as its two vertices at the bottom were furnished by a couple of leather pieces, also the same lovely color. Altogether, the handbag was rather simply designed, but it was no less elegant or worth to catch one's attention. Or at least, Haibara's attention. The girl widened her eyes, thunderstruck.

"Hakase... Isn't this… From Hanae Mori's Spring/Summer Collection 2013, the Heartful Papillon Bag…?"

"Ah, so you do know it, after all." Agasa chuckled and passed it to his beloved daughter. "Here you go, Ai-kun. Merry Christmas."

Haibara, being too shocked because of the sudden gift that she could not utter a word, stretched out her shaky hands to receive the purse, very much bewildered. Her fingers ran up and down the leather handles then circled around the popular Hanae Mori logo on the bag to make sure that she was in possession of the real thing and that it wasn't an illusion. Silvery orbs gazed at an equally perplexed Conan, assuming he hadn't a clue about it, then changed their target to the cheery professor.

"H-Hakase… What is the meaning of this?"

"Ah, well… I was going to get the bigger size but it was really expensive so I bought the smaller one instead. But I think it suits you, Ai-kun…"

"I'm not asking about the size and I _know _how expensive a Hanae Mori handbag is. I'm asking _why_ are you-"

"He heard our conversation yesterday, Haibara, he did." Conan patted on the scientist's left shoulder with the most reassuring attitude he could express, hoping the girl wouldn't react too aggressively.

There was a long, awkward silence before Haibara responded.

"… **What-did-you-just-say?**" She stressed each word as her eyes moved from Agasa to Conan, head twitching like a robot.

"Now, now, let's not waste time, shall we?" The professor clapped his hands in endeavor to lift up the atmosphere when he saw smoke emitting from Haibara's on-the-edge-of-exploding head. "Since Shinichi's friends are coming tonight, I'm sure you will all be busy with work, so why don't we take the opportunity before they arrive and have a small party? And oh, Shinichi! I have your present here!"

The old man bent down a little before he ripped the tape off the top of the rectangular container earlier. Grabbing a pair of pliers on the table he got rid of all the screws on the box, unraveling a solid block, which looked a lot like a human's upper body, covered by a cloth. Conan squatted down to flip the fabric off and as soon as the gift was revealed, his face was filled with extreme excitement and joy that neither the professor nor the shrunken scientist had witnessed.

"Oh my dear thank you thank you thank you Hakase! Thank you! A half-body copper statue of Sherlock Holmes with a removable cap and pipe! How should I thank you, Hakase?! It was sold out since forever I thought I couldn't get a hand on it! Where did you get this?!" Chirped Conan while embracing the figure like it was his greatest treasure.

"Well since there's no Hanae Mori retail shop around here so I had to drive to another neighborhood to get it. There was a shop at the darkest corner of the road with a sign saying "English Culture" that caught my attention. I thought I might be able to get something for you there, and went inside. It was really scary, the shop, I mean. Everything was dark and the salesclerk only used a flashlight to lead the way. When I asked for something related to Sherlock Holmes she got this from the deepest area of her basement. I guess the statue was really sold out from a long time ago."

"Eh? I've never seen store like that even though I've been all over Tokyo…"

"I guess it's because it's located at the most shadowy nook and it doesn't stand out at all?"

"But still... Such a wonderful store, how could I miss it!" Conan's face darkened and he bit his lower lips bitterly as if he had missed the most complex case a detective could ever collide with. He then looked at the figure, infatuated with with its beauty and his mood lifted up again.

"Ah, that's right, they sell a lot of Harry Potter goods, too!" Agasa thumped his left palm with his right fist. "The woman at the shop said her family had a hobby of collecting mysterious things or mystery-related things around the world then reselling them, especially from England, so they have magic wands, age-old jewelries, flying brooms, and more! Just like you see in supernatural movies! A very interesting place! Maybe I should take you guys there someday!"

"Ha… Ha ha ha…" Conan snickered to go along with the professor's thrill about the newly found shop though in reality his mind had been inhabited by the Holmes sculpture.

"Ahem…"

Haibara cleared her throat with an implication of her demanding an acceptable explanation from the two, but in reply was just dorky grins that she knew she wouldn't get anything out of. Giving in, she exhaled and sent out her last reminder.

"Fine. Party. But after that we'll have a _long_ talk."

* * *

A/N: And that's it! This was originally longer but I'm having trouble with the second half so I'm posting this first. I'll make the other half the fifth chapter. Not much drama in here, eh? Enjoy the lightheartedness first then we'll move on to a real(ly lame) case next chapter! xD A shout out for Heiji, no? xD

P.S.: I do not know how to describe a handbag so if there's anyone who can't imagine what it looks like and is curious, look it up on the internet! It's a really nice handbag! And no that kind of Sherlock Holmes statue doesn't exist. Sorry.

P.S.2: FYI, I'm wanting to write a Sherlock Holmes and Detective Conan crossover.

P.S.3: Or a Gintama and Detective Conan crossover. That, will be one of those whackiest crossover fanfictions ever I guess. Hm.

P.S.4: Thank you everyone for your reviews! They really do mean a lot to me! Thank you!

P.S.5: I've realized that my writing is getting very awkward. Don't you think so?


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